“Uzbek President Islam Karimov has passed away. May God’s mercy be upon him, as the Turkish Republic we are sharing the pain and sorrow of Uzbek people,” the Turkish Prime Minister said in a cabinet meeting broadcast live on Friday.

Karimov, 78, has not appeared in public since August 17. He has been in the hospital since last Saturday after suffering a stroke, Reuters reports, and the Uzbek government did confirm that he was critically ill.

Karimov has not designated a successor. He has held tight authoritarian rule over the nation, which borders Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, since 1989.

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